Early today, the Department of Justice released more than three million pages of files connected to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And as people have started digging into all the new emails and documents, we are learning a lot more about Epstein and his elite inner circle. Oh, and apparently, he would sometimes send people links to porn featuring characters from Five Nights at Freddy’s.

On May 4, 2017, Epstein sent a message to Karyna Shuliak, his last known girlfriend, that simply contained a link to an animated gif uploaded to 4chan that featured multiple characters from FNAF engaging in sexual activities. The animation was apparently made in Source Filmmaker and was shared on 4chan in April 2017. Epstein simply commented “amazing animations” in the subject line of the email.

This 2017 email, as well as others from the Epstein files purporting to show him sending FNAF porn he found online to Shuliak, spread across social media as part of a collage image. Many assumed it was a joke. But Kotaku and others online have been able to verify that the 2017 email did include a link to this NSFW 4chan gif post.

Discovering that Epstein looked at and shared porn based on the horror game Five Nights at Freddy’s is far from the worst piece of information to come out of the Epstein emails. But it is a strange piece of information I didn’t know before, and now I do. I can’t stop thinking about him writing “amazing animations” in the subject line as he emailed the link to his girlfriend. We live in a weird, horrible timeline, huh?

Xi Jinping has called for the renminbi to become a global reserve currency, in some of his clearest comments on his ambitions for China’s currency as Beijing seeks to play a greater role in the international monetary system.

In commentary published on Saturday in Qiushi, the ruling communist party’s flagship ideology journal, China’s president said the country needed to build a “powerful currency” that could be “widely used in international trade, investment and foreign exchange markets, and attain reserve currency status”.

China’s leadership has long sought to promote the internationalisation of the renminbi. But the comments marked Xi’s clearest definition yet of his goal of a “strong currency”, as well as the broader financial foundations Beijing will need to build to support it.

These include a “powerful central bank” capable of effective monetary management, globally competitive financial institutions and international financial centres able to “attract global capital and exert influence over global pricing,” Xi wrote.

The comments were originally part of a speech Xi delivered in 2024 to top regional officials, but had not been released publicly until this week.

The publication of Xi’s comments comes amid heightened uncertainty in global markets as a weaker US dollar — which President Donald Trump last week called a “great” development — a change in leadership of the Federal Reserve and geopolitical and trade tensions have prompted central banks to rethink their exposure to dollar assets.

“China senses the change of the global order more real than before,” said Kelvin Lam, senior China+ economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. Xi’s emphasis on the renminbi reflected “recent ruptures in the global order”, he added.

China’s central bank governor Pan Gongsheng last year forecast a new global currency order, telling investors, regulators and local officials in Shanghai that the renminbi would compete with other currencies in a “multi-polar international monetary system”.

“Beijing wants the yuan to be a serious global currency — not necessarily to replace the dollar overnight, but to be a strategic counterweight that limits US leverage in a fracturing financial order,” said Han Shen Lin, China country director at The Asia Group.

The renminbi has become the world’s second-largest trade finance currency since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but it plays a limited role in official reserves. As of the third quarter of 2025, the dollar accounted for about 57 per cent of global reserves, down from 71 per cent in 2000, while the euro stood at roughly 20 per cent, according to data from the IMF. The renminbi was sixth, at just 1.93 per cent.

Analysts said an open capital account and full convertibility were critical for global investors and central banks to hold more renminbi.

China’s trading partners have also called for Beijing to allow a sharper appreciation of the renminbi, which they argue is undervalued, making the country’s exports cheaper and helping fuel an unprecedented trade surplus that hit $1.2tn last year.

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva late last year called on China to fix “imbalances” in its economy, including deflation that she said had “resulted in significant real exchange rate depreciation”.

People’s Bank of China vice-governor Zou Lan said at a conference last month that China had no intention of using a weaker renminbi to gain a trade advantage.

Chinese policymakers have signalled tolerance for mild appreciation, allowing the renminbi to strengthen past Rmb7 against a weaker US dollar. But it has continued to depreciate against the euro.

“The core objective of China’s foreign exchange policy is to keep the renminbi stable and preserve its role as a store of value,” Lam said.

China’s priorities of reviving stronger domestic growth and advances in emerging technology would support longer-term appreciation for the renminbi, said Zhang Jun, chief economist at China Galaxy Securities.

Asia Group’s Han said: “Xi’s rhetoric won’t flip global foreign exchange markets today but it cements a long-term tilt investors are already sniffing out.”

“Overall, Beijing senses the dollar’s shine isn’t unblemished and will nudge its currency forward.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will make an official visit to China starting on Wednesday, marking the first such tour by a United Kingdom head of government in eight years.

The four-day visit, which will take Starmer to Beijing and Shanghai, is seen by officials and scholars as an opportunity to open a new chapter of sound and steady development in China-UK relations.

The two countries stepped up diplomatic engagement after Starmer took office in July 2024. In August the same year, President Xi Jinping held a phone conversation with Starmer at the latter's request, and a few months later in November, they met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, steering China-UK relations on the path of improvement and development.

On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in Beijing that China and the UK, both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, share common interests in maintaining communication and strengthening cooperation, which benefits both peoples and contributes to world peace, stability and development.

After taking office, the government of the British Labour Party expressed clear willingness to develop relations with China in a consistent, long-term and strategic way, and it has actively promoted dialogue and cooperation between the two countries, Guo said.

China stands ready to take this visit as an opportunity to enhance political mutual trust with the UK and deepen practical cooperation, he added.

According to media reports, Starmer will be accompanied by more than 50 senior executives and institutional representatives from major British companies, covering sectors including finance, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, culture, and the creative industries.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday that the large delegation reflects the UK's strong desire to deepen bilateral economic and trade ties.

"China attaches great importance to economic and trade cooperation with the UK, and is actively working with Britain to prepare for the economic and trade cooperation outcomes from the visit, as well as a meeting of Chinese and British entrepreneurs," a statement from the ministry quoted the spokesperson as saying.

Chinese and British companies have shown keen interest in the meeting, and more than 100 of them have registered for participation, the spokesperson added.

Official data shows that the bilateral trade value of goods between China and the UK reached $103.7 billion in 2025, and the two-way investment stock stood at nearly $68 billion. The trade value of services is expected to exceed $30 billion. The UK is China's third-largest trading partner in Europe, while China is the UK's largest trading partner in Asia.

Starmer has previously said that failing to navigate relations with China would amount to a "dereliction of duty", describing the absence of engagement as "just staggering".

In an interview with Bloomberg ahead of his visit, the British prime minister reiterated his point, saying that ignoring China — "when it is the second-largest economy in the world and there are business opportunities" — would not be sensible.

On Tuesday, Peter Wilson, the UK's ambassador to China, said the visit aims to increase contacts and establish stabilizing mechanisms, including structured dialogues and concrete, commercially meaningful outcomes, to support bilateral ties.

"Two countries like ours not talking to each other is a problem," Wilson said at a briefing in Beijing. He emphasized that keeping channels open allows both sides to have honest conversations about differences. "We don't see everything in the same way — and that is precisely why we need to talk."

Against what he described as the world facing a period of "radical uncertainty", Wilson said the UK and China need to find areas where they can "make common cause", help stabilize the international system and contribute to conflict resolution.

Zheng Zeguang, China's ambassador to the UK, wrote in The Times on Monday that closer collaboration with China will benefit Britain in attaining its development goals. He called for expanded dialogue, coordination and cooperation in many areas, including trade and investment, financial services, clean energy, fighting cross-border crime, education and culture, scientific and technological innovation, climate change and public health.

British Trade Commissioner for China Lewis Neal said on Tuesday in Beijing that sustained, government-level engagement is critical to underpinning long-term and strategic business relationships.

"The UK is open to investment from Chinese companies," he said.

Switzerland still hasn't determined exactly how many American fifth-generation F-35 fighters they'll order. But infrastructure deployment problems have already begun barely started, yet the entire budget is already spent. As swissinfo.ch writes, back in 2022 when the country hadn't even decided whether to buy these aircraft, it was estimated that 120 million francs or approximately $152 million would need allocating. However, today this sum has grown to 200 million francs, corresponding to about $252 million. Moreover, funds under new calculations will suffice only for basic minimum of what's necessary for new infrastructure. Additional elements, including capital building renovation, will require another 50 million francs or $63 million. Work pace has also been criticized, as at Payerne airbase they began in spring 2025 six months later than planned. Meanwhile, finances allocated for this project are already exhausted. At two other airbases Meiringen and Emmen infrastructure deployment start is delayed by at least one year. Meanwhile, first F-35s should arrive in Switzerland already in 2027, though final contract volumes remain undetermined.

Defense Express notes we're looking at a good example that even modern countries need to invest in updating their own airfields and infrastructure for operating fifth-generation fighters. This is also a story about insufficient assessment of own capabilities and needs. Someone might look at mentioned sums and say this isn't so much compared to 6 billion francs (approximately $7.5 billion) allocated for F-35 procurement. However, even aircraft price changes led to deciding to reduce planned volumes rather than provide additional funds. Modern combat aviation means considerable expenses, requiring modern equipped hangars, advanced simulators, software infrastructure with corresponding cybersecurity. This is further amplified for Switzerland, which has its peculiarities regarding fighter placement, including well-fortified mountain hangars.

In prepared testimony for a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio says the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela and that its interim leaders are cooperating, but he notes that the Trump administration would not rule out using additional force if needed following a raid to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro early this month. “We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail,” Rubio will say, according to his prepared opening statement released Tuesday by the State Department. ”It is our hope that this will not prove necessary, but we will never shy away from our duty to the American people and our mission in this hemisphere.” As he often is called to do, Rubio, a former Florida senator, will aim to sell one of President Donald Trump’s more contentious priorities to former colleagues in Congress. With the Republican administration’s foreign policy gyrating among the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the Middle East, Rubio also may be called to smooth alarm that has emerged in his own party lately about efforts like Trump’s demand to annex Greenland. In the hearing focused on Venezuela, Rubio will defend Trump’s decisions to remove Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in the U.S., continue deadly military strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs and seize sanctioned tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, according to the prepared remarks. He will again reject allegations that Trump is violating the Constitution by taking such actions. “There is no war against Venezuela, and we did not occupy a country,” he will say, according to the prepared remarks. “There are no U.S. troops on the ground. This was an operation to aid law enforcement.”

Maduro, who has pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a U.S. court, has defiantly declared himself “the president of my country” and protested his capture.

Congress has not curtailed Trump on Venezuela

Congressional Democrats have condemned Trump’s moves as exceeding the authority of the executive branch, while most Republicans have supported them as a legitimate exercise of presidential power. Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch, the chairman of the committee, planned to open the hearing by lauding Trump and Rubio for making Americans safer with the military actions in and around Venezuela and saying they were legal. “These actions were limited in scope, short in duration, and done to protect U.S. interests and citizens,” Risch will say, according to his prepared remarks released by the committee. “What President Trump has done in Venezuela is the definition of the president’s Article II constitutional authorities as commander-in-chief.” New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the committee, was taking the opposite tack, questioning whether the operation to remove Maduro was worth it considering most of his former top aides and lieutenants are still running the country. “The U.S. naval blockade around Venezuela and the raid have already cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars … and yet the Maduro regime is still in power,” she plans to say, according to her prepared opening statement. The House narrowly defeated a war powers act resolution that would have directed Trump to remove U.S. troops from Venezuela. As Rubio will argue, the administration says there are no U.S. troops on the ground in the South American nation despite a large military buildup in the region. Democrats had argued that the resolution was necessary after the U.S. raid to capture Maduro and because Trump has stated plans to control the country’s oil industry for years to come. The pushback has begun in the courts, too, as the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike filed what is thought to be the first wrongful-death case arising from the campaign. Three dozen strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean have killed at least 126 people since September.

The US takes steps to normalize ties while still issuing warnings

While keeping pressure on those the Trump administration dubs “narcotraffickers” without providing evidence, U.S. officials also are working to normalize ties with Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodríguez. Nonetheless, Rubio will make clear in his testimony that she has little choice but to comply with Trump’s demands. “Rodríguez is well aware of the fate of Maduro; it is our belief that her own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives,” Rubio will say, noting that they include opening Venezuela’s energy sector to U.S. companies, providing preferential access to production, using oil revenue to purchase American goods, and ending subsidized oil exports to Cuba. Rodríguez, who previously served as Maduro’s vice president, on Tuesday said her government and the Trump administration “have established respectful and courteous channels of communication.” During televised remarks, Rodríguez said she is working with Trump and Rubio to set “a working agenda.” So far, she has appeared to acquiesce to Trump’s demands and to release prisoners jailed by the government under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. On Monday, the head of a Venezuelan human rights group said 266 political prisoners had been freed since Jan. 8. Trump had praised the releases, saying on social media that he would “like to thank the leadership of Venezuela for agreeing to this powerful humanitarian gesture!”

In a key step to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the State Department notified Congress just this week that it intends to begin sending additional diplomatic and support personnel to Caracas to prepare for the possible reopening of the U.S. Embassy there. It was the first formal notice of the administration’s intent to reopen the embassy, which shuttered in 2019. Fully normalizing ties, however, would require the U.S. to revoke its decision recognizing the Venezuelan parliament elected in 2015 as the country’s legitimate government. Rubio also planned to meet Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado later Wednesday at the State Department. Machado went into hiding after Maduro was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. She reemerged in December to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. After Maduro was ousted, she traveled to Washington. In a meeting with Trump, she presented him with her Peace Prize medal, an extraordinary gesture given that Trump has effectively sidelined her.

Gen. Michael Guetlein, head of the Golden Dome missile defense program, said the success of this effort depends on the ability to field defenses that are both scalable and affordable, including new directed-energy and other non-kinetic technologies aimed at lowering the cost of intercepting missiles. Speaking Jan. 23 at the AFCEA Space Industry Days conference in Los Angeles, Guetlein said the program’s central challenge is the economics of missile defense, specifically how the cost of each intercept limits how many interceptor shots the United States can afford to keep on hand. He described this as an issue of “magazine depth,” a term that refers to the number of interceptors available to respond to an attack. Missile defense systems with limited magazines can be exhausted quickly if an adversary launches multiple weapons or employs decoys. The thinking is that a system that can only handle a small number of intercepts does not provide credible deterrence. The “cost per kill” has to come down, said Guetlein. Current U.S. missile defense interceptors, which were designed for regional or limited homeland defense missions, cost millions of dollars apiece and are used to defeat much lower-cost weapons. Analysts have pointed out that this imbalance invites adversaries to overwhelm defenses through volume.

“We have the most exquisite capabilities on the planet, with a high probability of kill. They do not miss but they take forever to build. They’re exceptionally expensive, and as a result, I have very small magazine depths, because the cost per kill is so high,” said Guetlein. “I have to flip that equation.” Golden Dome is the Defense Department’s effort to design a next-generation homeland missile defense architecture capable of countering advanced threats such as hypersonic glide vehicles, modern ballistic missiles and fractional orbital bombardment systems. Unlike existing missile defense programs that rely largely on ground- and sea-based interceptors, Golden Dome envisions a multi-layered system that integrates space-based sensors, communications and interceptors into a unified framework.

Pressure to scale production

Guetlein told the AFCEA conference that what the Pentagon needs immediately from industry is the ability to scale production and deliver lower-cost ways to defeat missiles, including non-kinetic options. Analysts say space-based interceptors capable of maneuvering on orbit could be effective but would also be among the most expensive elements of any future architecture. Directed energy systems, including lasers and neutral particle beams, are among the concepts Guetlein has highlighted as potential ways to drive down the cost per shot while increasing magazine depth. Neutral particle beams, which remain largely experimental, would theoretically operate at near-light speed and damage targets by disrupting electronics or generating heat. Guetlein also pointed to “left of launch” defenses, a phrase used to describe efforts to stop missile threats before a launch occurs. That can include intelligence and surveillance activities that detect preparations, as well as non-kinetic actions that complicate or delay an adversary’s ability to fire. The goal here is to reduce the number of missiles that ever need to be intercepted. “Because when you’re trying to defend something the size of the United States, I can’t do it the way we’ve done it overseas. I have to have a new way of doing it,” he said.

The urgency to scale production and lower costs has already shaped Pentagon investment decisions. The Defense Department recently announced plans to directly invest in the production of interceptor missiles built by Lockheed Martin and solid rocket motors produced by L3Harris Technologies. While not labeled as Golden Dome funding, those investments align directly with the program’s emphasis on deeper magazines and lower per-unit costs. They also speak to Guetlein’s broader argument that Golden Dome is less a technology challenge than an industrial one. “We’re accelerating private capital investment, and we’re taking private equities’ view of the defense industrial base,” Guetlein said, adding that he regularly meets with investment bankers to help stabilize demand signals as companies seek capital to expand capacity. That emphasis on economics was echoed in the National Defense Strategy released Jan. 23, which identifies defense of the homeland as the Pentagon’s top priority. “The Department will prioritize efforts to develop President Trump’s Golden Dome for America, with a specific focus on options to cost-effectively defeat large missile barrages and other advanced aerial attacks,” the document states.

Architecture to remain secret

Guetlein said details of the Golden Dome architecture will remain classified. He said conversations with industry are occurring almost exclusively through one-on-one engagements, rather than open forums. After his confirmation as Golden Dome program manager in July, Guetlein said foreign actors began cyber targeting the defense industrial base, prompting senior officials to clamp down on public discussion. “We have been quiet,” he said. “I have not been talking to industry consortiums. I’ve not been talking to the press. I’ve not been talking to the think tanks, and it wasn’t until September I was allowed to even start talking to the Hill.” That secrecy has begun to draw scrutiny. In a defense spending bill for fiscal year 2026 approved by the House last week, appropriators said they support Golden Dome but faulted the administration for failing to provide sufficient detail on how $23 billion in mandatory funding has been allocated. The bill directs the Pentagon to submit more detailed plans and justifications. Guetlein said the program is on track to meet the administration’s timeline.

“By the summer of ‘28 we will be able to defend the entire nation against ballistic missiles as well as other generation aerial threats,” he said, calling Golden Dome an “unprecedented challenge.”

uh, yeah, sure...

As program director, Guetlein reports to the deputy secretary of defense and has been granted unusually broad authorities. “I have budget authority, contract authority, hiring authority, technical authority, security authority to get after protecting the homeland.” The Golden Dome office, Guetlein said, currently has 52 staff and expects to grow to about 100, even though he is authorized to reach 300. Requirements are set centrally, but procurement is decentralized across the services and agencies. “I’ve got the Space Force buying SBIs. I’ve got the Army buying munitions and sensors. I’ve got the Navy buying munitions. I’ve got the Missile Defense Agency buying next generation interceptors, glide phase interceptors, and a whole host of other capability,” Guetlein said. He also works closely with the Space Development Agency’s low Earth orbit sensor and transport network. Guetlein noted that the Missile Defense Agency’s SHIELD procurement vehicle is not part of Golden Dome, despite recent headlines about the large number of vendors selected to compete under the contract. SHIELD, he said, is simply “a tool that I can reach in and use if I need to.”

Command-and-control layer

One of the most demanding pieces of the program, he said, is the command-and-control layer that connects sensors, decision-makers and interceptors across services and classification levels. That software “glue layer” must be demonstrated this summer, integrated with interceptors in 2027, and shown operating against credible threats in 2028. To speed that effort, the Golden Dome office formed a command-and-control consortium of six companies working side by side, an arrangement Guetlein described as a departure from traditional contracting approaches. Beyond technology, Guetlein said entrenched culture and organizational behavior pose daily obstacles. He criticized what he described as a compliance-driven mindset that prioritizes risk elimination over speed and integration. “We cannot keep doing business as usual,” he said. “That’s really what our challenge is going to be.” While President Trump has floated the idea of international involvement in Golden Dome, Guetlein said he has not yet been authorized to engage allies. “Everything we are doing is allied by design,” he said, adding that planning already assumes future integration of partner capabilities and access to overseas territory for sensors. Golden Dome has figured into a broader geopolitical dispute over Greenland, where Trump has said expanded U.S. access would be “vital” to the program, including for radar and interceptor deployment.

ARTEC consortium, which is a joint venture of KNDS Germany and Rheinmetall, announced plans to increase annual production of heavy wheeled GTK Boxer armored vehicles. And they plan to reach such a milestone in 2030. Janes noticed this at the Defence iQ International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2026 conference in Farnborough, Great Britain. At the same time, improvement of the basic chassis, or drive module, which is common to all Boxer-based vehicles, is being carried out. Currently, ARTEC already has five plants in Europe alone and is constantly expanding supply chains by adding new sources. At the same time, if necessary, the company is ready to deploy additional armored vehicle assembly capacities. In total, currently over 2,100 Boxer family vehicles in 28 modifications for 7 countries have been delivered and are being manufactured. At the same time, the drive module is compatible between all operators and can be changed within 40 minutes. If we look at previous figures in more detail, it turns out to be 837 armored vehicles in 8 versions for Germany, 629 in 5 variants for Great Britain, 272 units in 5 modifications for the Netherlands, 211 in 8 versions for Australia, 118 in 5 variants for Lithuania and 22 of two types for Qatar. Of course, there is also room for Ukraine here, with over 50 vehicles in two variants.

Defense Express notes that according to previously known information, Ukrainian military should receive 54 RCH 155 SPGs and 9 AiTO30 command vehicles. That is, together it turns out to be 63 units of Boxer-based armored vehicles, whose delivery status remains unknown for now. Regarding production increase plans, this is a very logical response, considering massive defense procurement by many countries. Germany alone plans to purchase up to 5,000 Boxers or vehicles based on them, which will cost approximately €40 billion. Also, other countries will join the list of operators, such as Portugal, which plans to take 90 units. Well, and one shouldn't forget that additional mass production allows somewhat reducing the quite considerable price of Boxer.

The US, btw, has produced a little under 5k of the Stryker, a much cheaper and less sophisticated 8x8 APC (although it gets a lot pricier in its modern IFV variants, but so does the Boxer, and most Boxers seem to be the basic APC variant or other mostly unarmed configurations anyway, which ought to be on the cheaper end). But yeah, the Germans are going to get 5k of these and the manufacturer's going to be pumping out 1k yearly, for... which clients exactly, given that up until now the averaged out yearly sales have been like 130?